Under the Paris Agreement, OECD countries agreed to aim for a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre industrial levels. This commitment requires a massive effort to decarbonise energy and electricity generation, a radical restructuring of the electric power sector and the rapid deployment of large amounts of low-carbon generation technologies, in particular nuclear energy and renewable energies such as wind and solar PV.
This study assesses the costs of alternative low-carbon electricity systems capable of achieving strict carbon emission reductions consistent with the aims of the Paris Agreement. It analyses several deep decarbonisation scenarios to reach the same stringent carbon emission target but characterised by different shares of variable renewable technologies, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.

Insights from Leaders in Nuclear Energy shares personal insights through a series of in-depth conversations between the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Director-General and leading figures in the sector. Each conversation explores the current issues and offers new ways to address challenges and aim for excellence.
In August 2018, NEA Director-General William D. Magwood, IV sat down with Toyoshi Fuketa, Chairman of the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), for a wide-ranging discussion regarding nuclear safety issues in Japan. The conversation touches on the Tokyo Electronic Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident, as well as ongoing challenges, Chairman Fuketa's perspective and insights and new directions for the NRA.

Under the Paris Agreement, OECD countries agreed to aim for a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre industrial levels. This commitment requires a massive effort to decarbonise energy and electricity generation, a radical restructuring of the electric power sector and the rapid deployment of large amounts of low-carbon generation technologies, in particular nuclear energy and renewable energies such as wind and solar PV.
This study assesses the costs of alternative low-carbon electricity systems capable of achieving strict carbon emission reductions consistent with the aims of the Paris Agreement. It analyses several deep decarbonisation scenarios to reach the same stringent carbon emission target but characterised by different shares of variable renewable technologies, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.

Under the Paris Agreement, OECD countries agreed to aim for a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2?C above pre industrial levels. This commitment requires a massive effort to decarbonise energy and electricity generation, a radical restructuring of the electric power sector and the rapid deployment of large amounts of low-carbon generation technologies, in particular nuclear energy and renewable energies such as wind and solar PV.
This study assesses the costs of alternative low-carbon electricity systems capable of achieving strict carbon emission reductions consistent with the aims of the Paris Agreement. It analyses several deep decarbonisation scenarios to reach the same stringent carbon emission target but characterised by different shares of variable renewable technologies, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.

The NEA mentoring workshops are in line with the initiatives being undertaken by countries around the world to ensure that expertise is maintained in highly technical areas such as nuclear safety, radiological protection and other critical disciplines. Capacity-building efforts focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields need to be sustained and reinforced – particularly those aimed at young women, who are significantly under-represented in many areas. It is in this spirit that the NEA partnered with Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST) in 2017 to organise its first International Mentoring Workshop in Science and Engineering, on 25-26 July 2017 in Chiba, Japan. The success of this first workshop has led to the organisation of two additional workshops in 2018, both of which are introduced in this brochure – one in Tokyo, Japan, and the other in Ávila, Spain. These workshops are a clear manifestation of the NEA’s commitment to maintaining, and further strengthening, its momentum in encouraging a future generation of female leaders in science and engineering fields.

One of the many important lessons learnt about nuclear safety over the years has been that
human aspects of nuclear safety are as important as any technical issue that may arise in
the course of nuclear operations. The international nuclear community can work together to
identify and address issues associated with components and systems and compare operational
experiences, but identifying how human behaviour affects safety and the best approaches to
examine this behaviour from country to country remains less common.
Practical experience has nevertheless shown that there are important differences in how people
work together and communicate across borders. People’s behaviours, attitudes and values
do not stop at the gate of a nuclear installation, and awareness of the systemic nature of
culture and its deeper aspects, such as the dynamics of how values and assumptions influence
behaviours, continues to evolve.
The NEA safety culture forum was created to gain a better understanding of how the national
context affects safety culture in a given country and how operators and regulators perceive
these effects in their day-to-day activities. The ultimate goal is to ensure safe nuclear operations.
The first NEA safety culture forum – a collaborative effort between the Nuclear Energy Agency
(NEA), the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the Swedish Radiation Safety
Authority (SSM) – was held in Sweden in early 2018. This report outlines the process used to
conduct the forum, reveals findings from the discussions and invites the nuclear community to
further reflect and take action.

The NEA has a long tradition of expertise in the area of nuclear emergency policy, planning, preparedness and management. Through its activities in this field, it offers member countries unbiased assistance on nuclear preparedness matters, with a view to facilitating improvements in nuclear emergency preparedness strategies and response at the international level. A central approach to this has been the preparation and conduct of the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series.
The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed specifically in response to member countries' desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Exercise objectives focused on notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving ionising radiation and/or radioactive material. The exercise was held during 2015 and 2016, with 22 countries participating in the exercise.
This report summarises the major evaluation outcomes of the national and regional exercises, policy level outcomes, recommendations and follow-up activities emerging from INEX-5 and the discussions at the INEX-5 International Workshop. A set of key needs were identified in areas such as real-time communication and information sharing among countries and international partners, improving cross-border and international co-ordination of protective measures and considering the mental health impacts on populations when implementing protective measures.

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments that were performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality and safety analysts as well as nuclear data evaluators to validate calculational techniques and data. The handbook is produced by the ICSBEP working group, under the aegis of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). While co-ordination and administration of the ICSBEP is undertaken by the NEA, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction, and priorities of the project within their respective countries. Access to some of the information and data included in this handbook may be restricted; full conditions for access are available on the NEA website.
The 2018 edition contains data evaluated criticality safety benchmark data in nine volumes that span over 70 000 pages. The handbook contains 567 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 916 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 45 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 215 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

The International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Experiments contains reactor physics benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments that were performed at various nuclear facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by reactor designers, safety analysts and nuclear data evaluators to validate calculational techniques and data. The handbook is a product of the International Reactor Physics Evaluation (IRPhE) project, conducted by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). While co-ordination and administration of the IRPhE project is undertaken by the NEA, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction, and priorities of the project within their respective countries. Access to some of the information and data included in this handbook may be restricted; full conditions for access are available on the NEA website.
The 2018 edition contains data from 159 different experimental series that were performed at 54 different nuclear facilities. Some 156 of the 159 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks. The remaining five evaluations are published as draft documents only. All draft documents were reviewed by the International Reactor Physics Evaluation (IRPhE) Technical Review Group (TRG). Example calculations are presented; however, these calculations do not constitute validation or endorsement of the codes or cross section data. The IRPhE project is patterned after the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and is closely co-ordinated with the ICSBEP. Some benchmark data are applicable to both nuclear criticality safety and reactor physics technology. Some have already been evaluated and published by the ICSBEP, but have been extended to include other types of measurements besides the critical configuration.

The nuclear energy sector employs a considerable workforce around the world, and with nuclear power projected to grow in countries with increasing electricity demand, corresponding jobs in the nuclear power sector will also grow. Using the most available macroeconomic model to determine total employment – the "input/output" model – the Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency collaborated to measure direct, indirect and induced employment from the nuclear power sector in a national economy. The results indicate that direct employment during site preparation and construction of a single unit 1 000 megawatt-electric advanced light water reactor at any point in time for 10 years is approximately 1 200 professional and construction staff, or about 12 000 labour years. For 50 years of operation, approximately 600 administrative, operation and maintenance, and permanently contracted staff are employed annually, or about 30 000 labour years. For up to 10 years of decommissioning, about 500 people are employed annually, or around 5 000 labour years. Finally, over an approximate period of 40 years, close to 80 employees are managing nuclear waste, totalling around 3 000 labour years. A total of about 50 000 direct labour-years per gigawatt. Direct expenditures on these employees and equipment generate approximately the same number of indirect employment, or about 50 000 labour years; and direct and indirect expenditures generate about the same number of induced employment, or 100 000 labour years. Total employment in the nuclear power sector of a given national economy is therefore roughly 200 000 labour years over the life cycle of a gigawatt of nuclear generating capacity.

National programmes for radioactive waste management require very large amounts of data and information across multiple and disparate disciplines. These programmes tend to run over a period of many decades resulting in a serious risk of data and information loss, which in turn can threaten the production and maintenance of robust safety cases.

Metadata and associated tools and techniques play a crucial role in modern data and information management. The Radioactive Waste Repository Metadata Management (RepMet) initiative has prepared the first international study on the application of metadata to the field of radioactive waste management. This report introduces the concept of metadata, explains how metadata can help to facilitate data management, and gives advice on the issues arising when developing metadata within radioactive waste management programmes. It is aimed at readers looking to obtain a highlevel overview of metadata, and associated tools and techniques, and the strategic importance they can play in Radioactive Waste Management Organisations (RWMOs).

For the past several decades, the Nuclear Energy Agency Salt Club has been supporting
and overseeing the characterisation of rock salt as a potential host rock for deep
geological repositories. This extensive evaluation of deep geological settings is aimed
at determining ? through a multidisciplinary approach ? whether specific sites are
suitable for radioactive waste disposal. Studying the microbiology of granite, basalt,
tuff, and clay formations in both Europe and the United States has been an important
part of this investigation, and much has been learnt about the potential influence
of microorganisms on repository performance, as well as about deep subsurface
microbiology in general. Some uncertainty remains, however, around the effects of
microorganisms on salt-based repository performance. Using available information
on the microbial ecology of hypersaline environments, the bioenergetics of survival
under high ionic strength conditions and studies related to repository microbiology,
this report summarises the potential role of microorganisms in salt-based radioactive
waste repositories.

NEA News is the professional journal of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). It features articles on the latest nuclear energy issues concerning the economic and technical aspects of nuclear energy, nuclear safety and regulation, radioactive waste management and decommissioning, radiological protection, nuclear science and nuclear legislation. Each issue provides facts and opinions on nuclear energy, updates on NEA activities, a brief presentation of new NEA publications and other NEA news, along with links to NEA videos.

Topics covered in this issue of NEA News include: Fukushima reconstruction: Society, economy and community; The Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility: A new era in fuel safety research; The Full Costs of Electricity Provision: A new NEA report; Insights into the global uranium market; and Progress towards an all hazards approach to emergency preparedness and response. This edition of NEA News also includes the NEA Director General William D. Magwood, IV's opening remarks at the NEA 60th Anniversary High Level Session in April 2018.

NEA News is the professional journal of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). It features articles on the latest nuclear energy issues concerning the economic and technical aspects of nuclear energy, nuclear safety and regulation, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science and nuclear legislation. Each issue provides facts and opinions on nuclear energy, updates on NEA activities, a brief presentation of new NEA publications and other NEA news, along with links to NEA videos.

Topics covered in this issue of NEA News include: Perspectives on nuclear data activities at the Data Bank: Enhancing the validation function; An NEA State-of-the-Art Report on Accident-Tolerant Fuels; Country-Specific Safety Culture Forum in Sweden; 2018 NEA International Mentoring Workshops; NEA International Radiological Protection School (IRPS): Preparing tomorrow’s radiological protection leaders; and Nuclear Law Bulletin: 50 years of legal scholarship. This issue of NEA News also includes a guest editorial by Bernard Boullis, Advisor to France’s High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, on Science and Radioactive Waste Management.

Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information provided by governments includes statistics on total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, fuel cycle capacities and requirements, and projections to 2035, where available. Country reports summarise energy policies, updates of the status in nuclear energy programmes and fuel cycle developments. In 2017, nuclear power continued to supply significant amounts of low-carbon baseload electricity, in a context of strong competition from low-cost fossil fuels and renewable energy sources. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads them to the corresponding spreadsheet.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in
the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear
law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical
articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on
relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international
organisations.

Feature articles and studies in this issue include: "Legal challenges to the operation of nuclear reactors
in Japan"; "Inside nuclear baseball: Reflections on the development of the safety conventions"; and "The
Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme in the United Arab Emirates: Background and history".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles and studies in this issue include: “The impact of the major nuclear power plant accidents on the international legal framework for nuclear power”; “Today is yesterday’s pupil: Reactor licence renewal in the United States”; and “Euratom competence in the areas of nuclear security and nuclear safety: An impossible parallel?”.

The present report is a follow up to this status report, documenting the results of a Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) exercise conducted by the NEA. This PIRT exercise identified SFP accident phenomena that are of high importance and yet are highly uncertain, thus highlighting their primary interest for further studies. The report recommends further support for existing experimental programmes and the establishment of a number of new programmes to focus, for example, on large-scale thermal-hydraulic experiments on the coolability of partly or completely uncovered spent-fuel assemblies and the investigation of spray cooling for uncovered spent-fuel assemblies in typical storage racks.

The transition from an operating nuclear facility to the decommissioning phase is critical in the life cycle of every facility. A number of organisational and technical modifications are needed in order for the facility to meet new objectives and requirements, and a certain number of activities must be initiated to support the transition and preparation for the dismantling of the facility. Thorough preparation and planning is key for the success of global decommissioning and dismantling projects, both to minimise delays and undue costs and to ensure a safe and efficient decommissioning process.
The aim of this report is to inform regulatory bodies, policy makers and planners about the relevant aspects and activities that should begin during the last years of operation and following the end of operation. Compiling lessons learnt from experiences and good practices in NEA member countries, the report supports the further optimisation of transition strategies, activities and measures that will ensure adequate preparation for decommissioning and dismantling.

The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed in response to NEA member countries' desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. INEX-5 was held during 2015 and 2016, and was followed by the Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) Workshop in early 2017. Representatives from 22 member countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Commission attended the workshop, where participants identified elements emerging from INEX-5 that would help improve international and national arrangements for notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving radiation or radiological materials.
The workshop was an interactive experience structured around invited presentations, moderated discussions and breakout groups that addressed the four broad topics of communication and information sharing with other countries and international partners; cross-border and international co-ordination of protective actions; mid- and long-term aspects of recovery; and connections with the work of other international organisations and networks. These proceedings provide a summary of the proposals and recommendations for future work in emergency management.

As part of a broader spectrum of collaborative activities underpinning nuclear materials research, the Nuclear Energy Agency is supporting worldwide efforts towards the development of advanced materials, including fuels for partitioning and transmutation purposes and accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs). This state-of-the-art report on ATFs results from the collective work of experts from 35 institutions in 14 NEA member countries, alongside invited technical experts from the People's Republic of China. It represents a shared and consensual position, based on expert judgment, concerning the scientific and technological knowledge related to ATFs. The report reviews available information on the most promising fuels and cladding concepts in terms of properties, experimental data and modelling results, as well as ongoing research and development activities. It also includes a description of illustrative accident scenarios that may be adopted to assess the potential performance enhancement of ATFs relative to the current standard fuel systems in accident conditions, a definition of the technology readiness levels applicable to ATFs, a survey of available modelling and simulation tools (fuel performance and severe accident analysis codes), and the experimental facilities available to support the development of ATF concepts. The information included in this report will be useful for national programmes and industrial stakeholders as an input to setting priorities, and helping them to choose the most appropriate technology based on their specific strategy, business case and deployment schedules.

The implementation of advanced nuclear systems requires that new technologies associated with the back end of the fuel cycle are developed. The separation of minor actinides from other fuel components is one of the advanced concepts being studied to help close the nuclear fuel cycle and to improve the long-term effects on the performance of geological repositories. Separating spent fuel elements and subsequently converting them through transmutation into short-lived nuclides should considerably reduce the long-term risks associated with nuclear power generation.

R&D programmes worldwide are attempting to address such challenges, and many processes for advanced reprocessing and partitioning minor actinides are being developed. This report provides a comprehensive overview of progress on separation chemistry processes, and in particular on the technologies associated with the separation and recovery of minor actinides for recycling so as to help move towards the implementation of advanced fuel cycles. The report examines both aqueous and pyro processes, as well as the status of current and proposed technologies described according to the hierarchy of separations targeting different fuel components. The process criteria that will affect technology down-selection are also reviewed, as are non-proliferation requirements. The maturity of different reprocessing techniques are assessed using a scale based on the technology readiness level, and perspectives for future
R&D are reviewed.

Electricity provision touches upon every facet of life in OECD and non-OECD countries alike, and choosing how this electricity is generated - whether from fossil fuels, nuclear energy or renewables - affects not only economic outcomes but individual and social well-being in the broader sense. Research on the overall costs of electricity is an ongoing effort, as only certain costs of electricity provision are perceived directly by producers and consumers. Other costs, such as the health impacts of air pollution, damage from climate change or the effects on the electricity system of small-scale variable production are not reflected in market prices and thus diminish well-being in unaccounted for ways.

Accounting for these social costs in order to establish the full costs of electricity provision is difficult, yet such costs are too important to be disregarded in the context of the energy transitions currently under way in OECD and NEA countries. This report draws on evidence from a large number of studies concerning the social costs of electricity and identifies proven instruments for internalising them so as to improve overall welfare.

The results outlined in the report should lead to new and more comprehensive research on the full costs of electricity, which in turn would allow policy makers and the public to make better informed decisions along the path towards fully sustainable electricity systems.

Electricity provision touches upon every facet of life in OECD and non-OECD countries alike, and choosing how this electricity is generated ? whether from fossil fuels, nuclear energy or renewables ? affects not only economic outcomes but individual and social well-being in the broader sense. Research on the overall costs of electricity is an ongoing effort, as only certain costs of electricity provision are perceived directly by producers and consumers. Other costs, such as the health impacts of air pollution, damage from climate change or the effects on the electricity system of small-scale variable production are not reflected in market prices and thus diminish well-being in unaccounted for ways.

Accounting for these social costs in order to establish the full costs of electricity provision is difficult, yet such costs are too important to be disregarded in the context of the energy transitions currently under way in OECD and NEA countries. This report draws on evidence from a large number of studies concerning the social costs of electricity and identifies proven instruments for internalising them so as to improve overall welfare.

The results outlined in the report should lead to new and more comprehensive research on the full costs of electricity, which in turn would allow policy makers and the public to make better informed decisions along the path towards fully sustainable electricity systems.

The field of emergency management is broad, complex and dynamic. In the post-Fukushima context, emergency
preparedness and response (EPR) in the nuclear sector is more than ever being seen as part of a broader
framework. The OECD has recommended that its members ?establish and promote a comprehensive, all-hazards
and transboundary approach to country risk governance to serve as the foundation for enhancing
national resilience and responsiveness?. In order to achieve such an all-hazards approach to emergency
management, a major step in the process will be to consider experiences from the emergency management of
hazards emanating from a variety of sectors.

The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) joined forces with the OECD Working Group
on Chemical Accidents (WGCA), the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate?s High-
Level Risk Forum (HLRF) and the European Commission?s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to collaborate on this
report, which demonstrates similarities between emergency planning and preparedness across sectors, and
identifies lessons learnt and good practices in diverse areas for the benefit of the international community.
A set of expert contributions, enriched with a broad range of national experiences, are presented in the
report to take into account expertise gathered from the emergency management of hazards other than those
emanating from the nuclear sector in an effort to support and foster an all-hazards approach to EPR.

Uranium is the raw material used to produce fuel for long-lived nuclear power facilities, necessary for the generation of significant amounts of baseload low-carbon electricity for decades to come. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium in recent years, driven by uncertainties concerning the evolution in the use of nuclear power, have led to significant production cutbacks and the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and to some questions being raised about future uranium supply.

This 27th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides analyses and information from 41 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. The present edition provides the most recent review of world uranium market fundamentals and presents data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

The cost estimation process of decommissioning nuclear facilities has continued to evolve in recent years, with a general trend towards demonstrating greater levels of detail in the estimate and more explicit consideration of uncertainties, the latter of which may have an impact on decommissioning project costs. The 2012 report on the International Structure for Decommissioning Costing (ISDC) of Nuclear Installations, a joint recommendation by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission, proposes a standardised structure of cost items for decommissioning projects that can be used either directly for the production of cost estimates or for mapping of cost items for benchmarking purposes. The ISDC, however, provides only limited guidance on the treatment of uncertainty when preparing cost estimates. Addressing Uncertainties in Cost Estimates for Decommissioning Nuclear Facilities, prepared jointly by the NEA and IAEA, is intended to complement the ISDC, assisting cost estimators and reviewers in systematically addressing uncertainties in decommissioning cost estimates. Based on experiences gained in participating countries and projects, the report describes how uncertainty and risks can be analysed and incorporated in decommissioning cost estimates, while presenting the outcomes in a transparent manner.

Communication has a specific role to play in the development of deep geological repositories. Building trust with the stakeholders involved in this process, particularly within the local community, is key for effective communication between the authorities and the public. There are also clear benefits to having technical experts hone their communication skills and having communication experts integrated into the development process. This report has compiled lessons from both failures and successes in communicating technical information to non-technical audiences. It addresses two key questions in particular: what is the experience base concerning the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of different tools for communicating safety case results to a non-technical audience and how can communication based on this experience be improved and included into a safety case development effort from the beginning?

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident has had an impact on the development of nuclear power around the world. While the accident was followed by thorough technical assessments of the safety of all operating nuclear power plants, and a general increase in safety requirements has been observed worldwide, national policy responses have been more varied. These responses have ranged from countries phasing out or accelerating decisions to phase out nuclear energy to countries reducing their reliance on nuclear power or on the contrary continuing to pursue or expand their nuclear power programmes.

This study examines changes to policies, and plans and attempts to distinguish the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi accident from other factors that have affected policymaking in relation to nuclear energy, in particular electricity market economics, financing challenges and competition from other sources (gas, coal and renewables). It also examines changes over time to long-term, quantitative country projections, which reveal interesting trends on the possible role of nuclear energy in future energy systems.

Worldwide consensus exists within the international community that geological repositories can provide the necessary long-term safety and security to isolate long-lived radioactive waste from the human environment over long timescales. Such repositories are also feasible to construct using current technologies. However, proving the technical merits and safety of repositories, while satisfying societal and political requirements, has been a challenge in many countries.

Building upon the success of previous conferences held in Denver (1999), Stockholm (2003), Berne (2007) and Toronto (2012), the ICGR 2016 brought together high-level decision makers from regulatory and local government bodies, waste management organisations and public stakeholder communities to review current perspectives of geological repository development. This publication provides a synthesis of the 2016 conference on continued engagement and safe implementation of repositories, which was designed to promote information and experience sharing, particularly in the development of polices and regulatory frameworks. Repository safety, and the planning and implementation of repository programmes with societal involvement, as well as ongoing work within different international organisations, were also addressed at the conference.

The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation (IRPhE) Project was initiated as a pilot in 1999 by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Science Committee (NSC). The project was endorsed as an official activity of the NSC in June 2003. While the NEA co-ordinates and administers the IRPhE Project at the international level, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction and priorities of the project within their respective countries. The information and data included in this handbook are available to NEA member countries, contributors and to others on a case-by-case basis.

This handbook contains reactor physics benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at nuclear facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by reactor designers, safety analysts and nuclear data evaluators to validate calculation techniques and data. Example calculations are presented; these do not constitute a validation or endorsement of the codes or cross-section data.

The 2016 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments contains data from 151 experimental series that were performed at 50 reactor facilities. To be published as approved benchmarks, the experiments must be evaluated against agreed technical criteria and reviewed by the IRPhE Technical Review Group. A total of 146 of the 151 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks. The remaining five evaluations are published as draft documents only.

New to the handbook is the evaluation of the CERES Phase II validation of fission product poisoning through reactivity worth measurements, which includes 13 fission products. The front cover of this year?s handbook shows the MINERVE reactor used to obtain the results.

Despite progress over the past decades, women remain under-represented in executive positions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Female students tend to do very well in math and science early in their academic careers but often take other career paths. Many countries are working to close the gender gap and are developing policies to reverse this trend. However, considering the increasing demand worldwide for skilled workers in all areas of science and technology, including in the nuclear energy sector, more advocacy is needed to encourage the next generation and to capture their interest in these fields. It is in this spirit that the NEA partnered with Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST) to organise a mentoring workshop on July 25-26, 2017 in Chiba, Japan.

Because nuclear issues are embedded in broader societal issues such as the environment, energy, risk
management, health policy and sustainability, they can often generate considerable interest and concern.
Actors involved in the nuclear energy sector, including regulators, governments and licensees, share
the goal of reaching accepted, sustainable decisions and to ensure that the decision-making process
is transparent. Stakeholder involvement in decision making is today seen as an essential means for
improving decisions and for optimising their implementation.

In this context, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) organised a Workshop on Stakeholder Involvement in
Nuclear Decision Making in January 2017, acknowledging that different countries and sectors may face
similar challenges and that sharing experiences and approaches could be useful. The workshop was an
opportunity to bring together experts with first-hand knowledge and experience in areas related to
nuclear law, regulatory practices, radiological protection, nuclear waste management, the deployment of
new nuclear facilities, extended operation of nuclear facilities, deployment of other energy technologies
and infrastructures, and social and traditional media.

This summary report attempts to capture the collective wisdom generated over three days of interaction.
It highlights some commonalities and differences in views and approaches, and identifies particular
lessons that can be applied to improve the strategy and practice of involving stakeholders in decision
making. Overall, the learning gained from this workshop can benefit governments and citizens alike.

Radioactive waste inventory data are an important element in the development of a national radioactive waste management programme since these data affect the design and selection of the ultimate disposal methods. Inventory data are generally presented as an amount of radioactive waste under various waste classes, according to the waste classification scheme developed and adopted by the country or national programme in question. Various waste classification schemes have evolved in most countries, and these schemes classify radioactive waste according to its origin, to criteria related to the protection of workers or to the physical, chemical and radiological properties of the waste and the planned disposal method(s).

The diversity in classification schemes across countries has restricted the possibility of comparing waste inventories and led to difficulties in interpreting waste management practices, both nationally and internationally. To help improve this situation, the Nuclear Energy Agency developed a methodology that ensures consistency of national radioactive waste and spent fuel inventory data when presenting them in a common scheme in direct connection with accepted management strategy and disposal routes. This report is a follow up to the 2016 report that introduced the methodology and presenting scheme for spent fuel, and it now extends this methodology and presenting scheme to all types of radioactive waste and corresponding management strategies.

Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information provided by governments includes statistics on total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, fuel cycle capacities and requirements, and projections to 2035, where available. Country reports summarise energy policies, updates of the status in nuclear energy programmes and fuel cycle developments. In 2016, nuclear power continued to supply significant amounts of low-carbon baseload electricity, despite strong competition from low-cost fossil fuels and subsidised renewable energy sources. Three new units were connected to the grid in 2016, in Korea, Russia and the United States. In Japan, an additional three reactors returned to operation in 2016, bringing the total to five under the new regulatory regime. Three reactors were officially shut down in 2016 -- one in Japan, one in Russia and one in the United States. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in
the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear
law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical
articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on
relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international
organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include: "Strengthening the international legal framework for nuclear security:
Better sooner rather than later"; "Brexit, Euratom and nuclear proliferation"; and "McMunn et al. V Babcock
and Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc., et al.: The long road to dismissal".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: "Reformed and reforming: Adapting the licensing process to meet new challenges"; "Reflections on the development of international nuclear law"; and "Facing the challenge of nuclear mass tort processing".

Radiological characterisation is a key enabling activity for the planning and
implementation of nuclear facility decommissioning. Effective characterisation allows
the extent, location and nature of contamination to be determined and provides
crucial information for facility dismantling, the management of material and waste
arisings, the protection of workers, the public and the environment, and associated
cost estimations.
This report will be useful for characterisation practitioners who carry out tactical
planning, preparation, optimisation and implementation of characterisation to support
the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the management of associated materials
and waste. It compiles recent experience from NEA member countries in radiological
characterisation, including from international experts, international case studies,
an international conference, and international standards and guidance. Using this
comprehensive evidence base, the report identifies relevant good practice and provides
practical advice covering all stages of the characterisation process.

Large quantities of materials arising from the decommissioning of nuclear facilities are non-radioactive per se. An additional significant share of materials is of very low-level or low-level radioactivity and can, after having undergone treatment and a clearance process, be recycled and reused in a restricted or unrestricted way. Recycle and reuse options today provide valuable solutions to minimise radioactive waste from decommissioning and at the same time maximise the recovery of valuable materials. The NEA Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning (CPD) prepared this overview on the various approaches being undertaken by international and national organisations for the management of slightly contaminated material resulting from activities in the nuclear sector. The report draws on CPD member organisations’ experiences and practices related to recycling and reuse, which were gathered through an international survey. It provides information on improvements and changes in technologies, methodologies and regulations since the 1996 report on this subject, with the conclusions and recommendations taking into account 20 years of additional experience that will be useful for current and future practitioners. Case studies are provided to illustrate significant points of interest, for example in relation to scrap metals, concrete and soil.

SFCOMPO 2.0 is the NEA database of experimental assay measurements. Measurements are isotopic concentrations from destructive radiochemical analyses of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) samples, supplemented with design information for the fuel rod and fuel assembly from which each sample was taken, as well as with relevant information on operating conditions and design characteristics of the host reactors. SFCOMPO 2.0 contains data from 750 SNF samples coming from 44 reactors representing 8 different international reactor designs. SFCOMPO 2.0 was released online in June 2017.
SFCOMPO 2.0 has been developed by the NEA in close collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The data in SFCOMPO 2.0 has undergone an independent and iterative review process by the Expert Group on Assay Data of Spent Nuclear Fuel (EGADSNF), under the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS). The data have been reviewed for consistency with the experimental reports but have not been formally evaluated. Assay data evaluations are a multidisciplinary effort involving reactor specialists, modelling and simulation experts, and radiochemistry experts. Any errors in measurements, omissions or inconsistencies in the original reported data may be reproduced in the database. Therefore, it is important that any user of the data for code validation consider and assess the potential data deficiencies. The evaluation of assay data will provide a more complete assessment and may result in the development of benchmark specifications and measurement data in cases of high quality experiments.
SFCOMPO 2.0 contains only openly accessible, published experimental assay data. An online Java application of SFCOMPO 2.0 is available at www.oecd-nea.org/sfcompo.

All national radioactive waste management authorities recognise today that a robust safety case is essential in developing disposal facilities for radioactive waste. To improve the robustness of the safety case for the development of a deep geological repository, a wide variety of activities have been carried out by national programmes and international organisations over the past years. The Nuclear Energy Agency, since first introducing the modern concept of the ?safety case?, has continued to monitor major developments in safety case activities at the international level. This Sourcebook summarises the activities being undertaken by the Nuclear Energy Agency, the European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency concerning the safety case for the operational and post-closure phases of geological repositories for radioactive waste that ranges from low-level to high-level waste and for spent fuel. In doing so, it highlights important differences in focus among the three organisations.

While refurbishments for the long-term operation of nuclear power plants and for the lifetime extension of such plants have been widely pursued in recent years, the number of plants to be decommissioned is nonetheless expected to increase in future, particularly in the United States and Europe. It is thus important to understand the costs of decommissioning so as to develop coherent and cost-effective strategies, realistic cost estimates based on decommissioning plans from the outset of operations and mechanisms to ensure that future decommissioning expenses can be adequately covered.
This study presents the results of an NEA review of the costs of decommissioning nuclear power plants and of overall funding practices adopted across NEA member countries. The study is based on the results of this NEA questionnaire, on actual decommissioning costs or estimates, and on plans for the establishment and management of decommissioning funds. Case studies are included to provide insight into decommissioning practices in a number of countries.

Decommissioning of both commercial and R&D nuclear facilities is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, and the largest of such industrial decommissioning projects could command considerable budgets. It is important to understand the costs of decommissioning projects in order to develop realistic cost estimates as early as possible based on preliminary decommissioning plans, but also to develop funding mechanisms to ensure that future decommissioning expenses can be adequately covered. Sound financial provisions need to be accumulated early on to reduce the potential risk for residual, unfunded liabilities and the burden on future generations, while ensuring environmental protection.

Decommissioning planning can be subject to considerable uncertainties, particularly in relation to potential changes in financial markets, in energy policies or in the conditions and requirements for decommissioning individual nuclear installations, and such uncertainties need to be reflected in regularly updated cost estimates.

This booklet offers a useful overview of the relevant aspects of financing the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. It provides information on cost estimation for decommissioning, as well as details about funding mechanisms and the management of funds based on current practice in NEA member countries.

Countries around the world continue to implement safety improvements and corrective actions based on lessons learnt from the 11 March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This report provides a high-level summary and update on these activities, and outlines further lessons learnt and challenges identified for future consideration. It focuses on actions taken by NEA committees and NEA member countries, and as such is complementary to reports produced by other international organisations.

It is in a spirit of openness and transparency that NEA member countries share this information to illustrate that appropriate actions are being taken to maintain and enhance the level of safety at their nuclear facilities. Nuclear power plants are safer today because of these actions. High priority follow-on items identified by NEA committees are provided to assist countries in continuously benchmarking and improving their nuclear safety practices.

Defence in depth (DiD) is a concept that has been used for many years alongside tools to optimise nuclear safety in reactor design, assessment and regulation. The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident provided unique insight into nuclear safety issues and raised questions about the tools used at nuclear power plants, including the effectiveness of the DiD concept, and whether DiD can be enhanced and its implementation improved.

This regulatory guidance booklet examines and provides advice on the implementation of DiD. A key observation is that the use of the DiD concept remains valid after the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Indeed, lessons learnt from the accident, and the accident?s impact on the use of DiD, have reinforced the fundamental importance of DiD in ensuring adequate safety.

This report is intended primarily for nuclear regulatory bodies, although information included herein is expected to be of interest to licensees, nuclear industry organisations and the general public.

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in October of 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are given in nine volumes. These volumes span over 70 000 pages and contain 570 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 913 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 45 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 215 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are 15 critical experiments with highly enriched uranium in an iron matrix performed to support the design of a repetitively pulsed reactor called the Sorgenta Rapida Reactor (SORA) at the Eurotom Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. A photograph of this experiment assembly is shown on the front cover.

The Nuclear Energy Agency carried out an independent peer review of Japan's siting process and criteria for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste in May 2016. The review concluded that Japan's site screening process is generally in accordance with international practices. As the goal of the siting process is to locate a site -- that is both appropriate and accepted by the community -- to host a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste, the international review team emphasises in this report the importance of maintaining an open dialogue and interaction between the regulator, the implementer and the public. Dialogue should begin in the early phases and continue throughout the siting process. The international review team also underlines the importance of taking into account feasibility aspects when selecting a site for preliminary investigations, but suggests that it would be inappropriate to set detailed scientific criteria for nationwide screening at this stage. The team has provided extensive advisory remarks in the report as opportunities for improvement, including the recommendation to use clear and consistent terminology in defining the site screening criteria as it is a critical factor in a successful siting process.

The NEA Expert Group on Fukushima Waste Management and Decommissioning R&D (EGFWMD) was established in 2014 to offer advice to the authorities in Japan on the management of large quantities of on-site waste with complex properties and to share experiences with the international community and NEA member countries on ongoing work at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The group was formed with specialists from around the world who had gained experience in waste management, radiological contamination or decommissioning and waste management R&D after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. This report provides technical opinions and ideas from these experts on post-accident waste management and R&D at the Fukushima Daiichi site, as well as information on decommissioning challenges.

Radioactive waste inventory data are an important element in the development of a national radioactive waste management programme since these data affect the design and selection of the ultimate disposal methods. Inventory data are generally presented as an amount of radioactive waste under various waste classes, according to the waste classification scheme developed and adopted by the country or national programme in question. Various waste classification schemes have thus evolved in most countries, and these schemes classify radioactive waste according to its origin, to criteria related to the protection of workers or to the physical, chemical and radiological properties of the waste and the planned disposal method(s).

The diversity in classification schemes across countries has restricted the possibility of comparing waste inventories and led to difficulties in interpreting waste management practices, both nationally and internationally. To help improve this situation, the Nuclear Energy Agency proposed to develop a methodology that would ensure consistency of national radioactive waste inventory data when presenting them in a common scheme. This report provides such a methodology and presenting scheme for spent nuclear fuel and for waste arising from reprocessing. The extension of the methodology and presenting scheme to other types of radioactive waste and corresponding management strategies is envisaged in a second phase.

Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country
reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information
provided by governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced
by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as
projections of nuclear generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total
electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power
plants increased slightly in 2015, by 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Two new units were connected to the
grid in 2015, in Russia and Korea; two reactors returned to operation in Japan under the new regulatory
regime; and seven reactors were officially shut down - five in Japan, one in Germany and one in the
United Kingdom. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans
for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects
progressing in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other
developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the
corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.
Donnees sur l'energie nucleaire 2016

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include "Nuclear Third Party Liability in Germany" and "Towards Nuclear Disarmament: State of Affairs in the International Legal Framework".

Since the discovery of radiation at the end of the 19th century, the health effects of exposure to radiation have been studied more than almost any other factor with potential effects on human health. The NEA has long been involved in discussions on the effects of radiation exposure, releasing two reports in 1994 and 2007 on radiological protection science.

This report is the third in this state-of-the-art series, examining recent advances in the understanding of radiation risks and effects, particularly at low doses. It focuses on radiobiology and epidemiology, and also addresses the social science aspects of stakeholder involvement in radiological protection decision making. The report summarises the status of, and issues arising from, the application of the International System of Radiological Protection to different types of prevailing circumstances.

Recent interest in small modular reactors (SMRs) is being driven by a desire to reduce the total capital costs associated with nuclear power plants and to provide power to small grid systems. According to estimates available today, if all the competitive advantages of SMRs were realised, including serial production, optimised supply chains and smaller financing costs, SMRs could be expected to have lower absolute and specific (per-kWe) construction costs than large reactors. Although the economic parameters of SMRs are not yet fully determined, a potential market exists for this technology, particularly in energy mixes with large shares of renewables.

This report assesses the size of the market for SMRs that are currently being developed and that have the potential to broaden the ways of deploying nuclear power in different parts of the world. The study focuses on light water SMRs that are expected to be constructed in the coming decades and that strongly rely on serial, factory-based production of reactor modules. In a high-case scenario, up to 21 GWe of SMRs could be added globally by 2035, representing approximately 3% of total installed nuclear capacity.

Nuclear sites around the world are being decommissioned and remedial actions are being undertaken to enable sites, or parts of sites, to be reused. Although such activities are relatively straightforward for most sites, experience has suggested that preventative action is needed to minimise the impact of remediation activities on the environment and the potential burden to future generations. Removing all contamination in order to make a site suitable for any use generates waste and has associated environmental, social and economic drawbacks and benefits. Site remediation should thus be sustainable and result in an overall net benefit.

This report draws on recent experience of NEA member countries in nuclear site remediation during decommissioning in order to identify strategic considerations for the sustainable remediation of subsurface contamination – predominantly contaminated soil and groundwater – to describe good practice, and to make recommendations for further research and development. It provides insights for the decision makers, regulators, implementers and stakeholders involved in nuclear site decommissioning so as to ensure the sustainable remediation of nuclear sites, now and in the future.

The fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that activities related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy are carried out in a safe manner within their respective countries. In order to effectively achieve this objective, the nuclear regulatory body requires specific characteristics, one of which is a healthy safety culture.

This regulatory guidance report describes five principles that support the safety culture of an effective nuclear regulatory body. These principles concern leadership for safety, individual responsibility and accountability, co-operation and open communication, a holistic approach, and continuous improvement, learning and self-assessment.

The report also addresses some of the challenges to a regulatory body's safety culture that must be recognised, understood and overcome. It provides a unique resource to countries with existing, mature regulators and can be used for benchmarking as well as for training and developing staff. It will also be useful for new entrant countries in the process of developing and maintaining an effective nuclear safety regulator.

Uranium is the raw material used to produce fuel for long-lived nuclear power facilities, necessary for the generation of significant amounts of baseload low-carbon electricity for decades to come. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium in recent years, driven by uncertainties concerning evolutions in the use of nuclear power, have led to the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and to some questions being raised about future uranium supply. This 26th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides analyses and information from 49 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. The present edition provides the most recent review of world uranium market fundamentals and presents data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

In the field of long-term radioactive waste management, projects to construct repositories normally last from decades to centuries. Such projects will inevitably have an effect on the host community from the planning stage to the end of construction and beyond. The key to a long-lasting and positive relationship between a site and its host community is ensuring that solutions are reached together throughout the entire process. The sustainability of radioactive waste management solutions can potentially be achieved through design and implementation of a facility that provides added cultural and amenity value, as well as economic opportunities, to the local community.

This second edition of Fostering a Durable Relationship Between a Waste Management Facility and its Host Community: Adding Value Through Design and Process highlights new innovations in siting processes and in facility design – functional, cultural and physical – from different countries, which could be of added value to host communities and their sites in the short to long term. These new features are examined from the perspective of sustainability, with a focus on increasing the likelihood that people will both understand the facility and its functions, and remember what is located at the site.

This 2015 update by the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence will be beneficial in designing paths forward for local or regional communities, as well as for national radioactive waste management programmes.

Heavy liquid metals such as lead or lead-bismuth have been proposed and investigated as coolants for fast reactors since the 1950s. More recently, there has been renewed interest worldwide in the use of these materials to support the development of systems for the transmutation of radioactive waste. Heavy liquid metals are also under evaluation as a reactor core coolant and accelerator-driven system neutron spallation source. Several national and international R&D programmes are ongoing for the development of liquid lead-alloy technology and the design of liquid-lead alloy-cooled reactor systems.

In 2007, a first edition of the handbook was published to provide deeper insight into the properties and experimental results in relation to lead and lead-bismuth eutectic technology and establish a common database. This handbook remains a reference and is a valuable tool for designers and researchers with an interest in heavy liquid metals.

The 2015 edition includes updated data resulting from various national and international R&D programmes and contains new experimental data to help understand some important phenomena such as liquid metal embrittlement and turbulent heat transfer in a fuel bundle. The handbook provides an overview of liquid lead and lead-bismuth eutectic properties, materials compatibility and testing issues, key aspects of thermal-hydraulics and existing facilities, as well as perspectives for future R&D.

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in October of 1992 by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these calculations do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are given in nine volumes. These volumes span approximately 69 000 pages and contain 567 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 874 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 31 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 207 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for neutron activation foil and thermoluminescent dosimeter measurements performed at the SILENE critical assembly in Valduc, France as part of a joint venture in 2010 between the US DOE and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). A photograph of this experiment is shown on the front cover.

Since the beginning of the nuclear era, significant scientific attention has been given to thorium's potential as a nuclear fuel. Although the thorium fuel cycle has never been fully developed, the opportunities and challenges that might arise from the use of thorium in the nuclear fuel cycle are still being studied in many countries and in the context of diverse international programmes around the world. This report provides a scientific assessment of thorium's potential role in nuclear energy both in the short to longer term, addressing diverse options, potential drivers and current impediments to be considered if thorium fuel cycles are to be pursued.

Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power plants increased slightly in 2014, by 1.4% and 0.3% respectively, despite Japan's nuclear fleet remaining offline throughout the year. No new reactor was connected to the grid in OECD countries and one, in the United States, was permanently shut down. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The global response to address climate change is a key policy challenge of the 21st century. Many governments around the world have agreed that action should be taken to achieve large cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the coming decades, to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to ensure the necessary financial and technical support for developing countries to take action.

There is a growing scientific consensus that global annual GHG emissions will need to be reduced by at least 50% from today’s levels by 2050 if the world is to limit the average temperature increase to 2°C by the end of the century and avoid the worst consequences of global warming. This brochure describes the role that nuclear energy can play in helping to combat climate change, and sets that role in the context of all low-carbon electricity sources, with specific references to renewables.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include "Entry into force of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage: Opening the umbrella"; "Towards a new international framework for nuclear safety: Developments from Fukushima to Vienna"; "Nuclear arbitration: Interpreting non-proliferation agreements".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include ?Treaty implementation applied to conventions on nuclear safety? and ?Crisis, criticism, change: Regulatory reform in the wake of nuclear accidents?.

Nuclear new build has been progressing steadily since the year 2000, with the construction of 94 new reactors initiated and 56 completed reactors connected to the grid. Among these new reactors are some of the first generation III/III+ reactors of their kind. Drawing on a combination of conceptual analysis, expert opinion and seven in-depth case studies, this report provides policymakers and stakeholders with an overview of the principal challenges facing nuclear new build today, as well as ways to address and overcome them.

It focuses on the most important challenges of building a new nuclear power plant, namely assembling the conditions necessary to successfully finance and manage highly complex construction processes and their supply chains. Different projects have chosen different paths, but they nonetheless share a number of features. Financing capital-intensive nuclear new build projects requires, for example, the long-term stabilisation of electricity prices whether through tariffs, power purchase agreements or contracts for difference. In construction, the global convergence of engineering codes and quality standards would also promote both competition and public confidence. In addition, change management, early supply chain planning and "soft issues" such as leadership, team building and trust have emerged over and again as key factors in the new build construction process. This report looks at ongoing trends in these areas and possible ways forward.

This joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is the eighth in a series of studies on electricity generating costs. As policy makers work to ensure that the power supply is reliable, secure and affordable, while making it increasingly clean and sustainable in the context of the debate on climate change, it is becoming more crucial that they understand what determines the relative cost of electricity generation using fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable sources of energy. A wide range of fuels and technologies are presented in the report, including natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, solar, onshore and offshore wind, biomass and biogas, geothermal, and combined heat and power, drawing on a database from surveys of investment and operating costs that include a larger number of countries than previous editions.

The analysis of more than 180 plants, based on data covering 22 countries, reveals several key trends, pointing, for example, to a significant decline in recent years in the cost of renewable generation. The report also reveals that nuclear energy costs remain in line with the cost of other baseload technologies, particularly in markets that value decarbonisation. Overall, cost drivers of the different generating technologies remain both market-specific and technology-specific.

Readers will find a wealth of details and analysis, supported by over 200 figures and tables, underlining this report's value as a tool for decision makers and researchers concerned with energy policies, climate change and the evolution of power sectors around the world.

The Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory (RK&M) across Generations initiative was launched by the Nuclear Energy Agency in 2011 to foster international reflection and progress towards this goal and to meet increasing demands by waste management specialists and other interested parties for viable and shared strategies. The RK&M initiative is now in its second phase, which is to last until 2017. Phase I culminated on 15-17 September 2014 with the organisation of an international conference and debate on “Constructing Memory" held in Verdun, France.

The conference was attended by approximately 200 participants from 17 countries and 3 international organisations. Participants included specialists from the radioactive waste management area and beyond, academics in the fields of archaeology, communications, cultural heritage, geography and history, as well as artists, archivists, representatives from local heritage societies and from communities that could host a radioactive waste repository.

Spent nuclear fuel contains minor actinides (MAs) such as neptunium, americium and curium, which require careful management. This becomes even more important when mixed oxide (MOX) fuel is being used on a large scale since more MAs will accumulate in the spent fuel. One way to manage these MAs is to transmute them in nuclear reactors, including in light water reactors, fast reactors or accelerator-driven subcritical systems. The transmutation of MAs, however, is not straightforward, as the loading of MAs generally affects physics parameters, such as coolant void, Doppler and burn-up reactivity.

This report focuses on nuclear data requirements for minor actinide management, the review of existing integral data and the determination of required experimental work, the identification of bottlenecks and possible solutions, and the recommendation of an action programme for international co-operation.

Radioactive waste management is embedded in broader societal issues such as the environment, risk management, energy, health policy and sustainability. In all these fields, there is an increasing demand for public involvement and engagement. This 2015 update of Stakeholder Involvement Techniques: Short Guide and Annotated Bibliography, assists practitioners and non-specialists by outlining the steps and issues associated with stakeholder involvement in decision making and by facilitating access to useful online resources (handbooks, toolboxes and case studies). The updated guide has been considerably enriched with experiences since 2004 and includes extensive references to the literature. It is published alongside the release of an online annotated bibliography that will be updated regularly.

Decommissioning of both commercially used and R&D nuclear facilities is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, and the largest of such industrial decommissioning projects could command considerable budgets. Several approaches are currently being used for decommissioning cost estimations, with an international culture developing in the field. The present cost estimation practice guide was prepared in order to offer international actors specific guidance in preparing quality cost and schedule estimates to support detailed budgeting for decommissioning implementation, for the preparation of decommissioning plans and for the securing of funds. This guide is based on current practices and standards in a number of NEA member countries and aims to help consolidate the practice and process of decommissioning cost estimation so as to make it more widely understood. It offers a useful reference for the practitioner and for training programmes.

Peer reviews are a standard co-operative OECD working tool that offer member countries a framework to compare experiences and examine best practices in a host of areas. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has developed a proven methodology for conducting peer reviews in radioactive waste management and nuclear R&D. Using this methodology, the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee’s Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) developed the present guide as a framework for decommissioning cost reviewers and reviewees to prepare for and conduct international peer reviews of decommissioning cost estimate studies for nuclear facilities. It includes checklists that will help national programmes or relevant organisations to assess and improve decommissioning cost estimate practices in the future. This guide will act as the NEA reference for conducting such international peer reviews.

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in October 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these calculations do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are given in nine volumes. These volumes span approximately 67?000 pages and contain 561 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4?839 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 24 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each and 207?configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for subcritical measurements of a nickel-reflected, plutonium-metal sphere performed at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) by experimenters at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2012. A photograph of this experiment is shown on the front cover.

Uranium mining and milling has evolved significantly over the years. By comparing currently leading approaches with outdated practices, this report demonstrates how uranium mining can be conducted in a way that protects workers, the public and the environment. Innovative, modern mining practices combined with strictly enforced regulatory standards are geared towards avoiding past mistakes committed primarily during the early history of the industry when maximising uranium production was the principal operating consideration. Today?s leading practices in uranium mining aim at producing uranium in an efficient and safe manner that limits environmental impacts to acceptable standards. As indicated in this report, the collection of baseline environmental data, environmental monitoring and public consultation throughout the life cycle of the mine enables verification that the facility is operating as planned, provides early warning of any potentially adverse impacts on the environment and keeps stakeholders informed of developments. Leading practice also supports planning for mine closure before mine production is licensed to ensure that the mining lease area is returned to an environmentally acceptable condition. The report highlights the importance of mine workers being properly trained and well equipped, as well as that of ensuring that their work environment is well ventilated so as to curtail exposure to radiation and hazardous materials and thereby minimise health impacts.

Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting the status of nuclear power in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power plants remained steady in 2013 despite the progressive shutdown of all reactors in Japan leading up to September and the permanent closure of six reactors in the OECD area. Governments committed to maintaining nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for increasing nuclear generating capacity, and progress was made in the development of deep geological repositories for spent nuclear fuel, with Finland expected to have the first such facility in operation in the early 2020s. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: "Progress towards a global nuclear liability regime"; "The Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage and participation by developing countries: A South African perspective"; "Fusion energy and nuclear liability considerations"; and "Nuclear energy and Indian society: Public engagement, risk assessment and legal frameworks".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include "Facilitating the entry into force and implementation of the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material: Observations, challenges and benefits"; "The legal status of nuclear power in Germany"; "Challenges facing the insurance industry since the modernisation of the international nuclear third party liability regime"; "Draft Federal Act of the Russian Federation, 'The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and its Financial Security'".

Decommissioning of nuclear facilities and related remedial actions are currently being undertaken around the world to enable sites or parts of sites to be reused for other purposes. Remediation has generally been considered as the last step in a sequence of decommissioning steps, but the values of prevention, long-term planning and parallel remediation are increasingly being recognised as important steps in the process. This report, prepared by the Task Group on Nuclear Site Restoration of the NEA Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning, highlights lessons learnt from remediation experiences of NEA member countries that may be particularly helpful to practitioners of nuclear site remediation, regulators and site operators. It provides observations and recommendations to consider in the development of strategies and plans for efficient nuclear site remediation that ensures protection of workers and the environment.

Producing uranium in a safe and environmentally responsible manner is not only important to the producers and consumers of the product, but also to society at large. Given expectations of growth in nuclear generating capacity and associated uranium demand in the coming decades &ndash; particularly in the developing world &ndash; enhancing awareness of leading practice in uranium mining is important. This extended summary of the report <em>Managing Environmental and Health Impacts of Uranium Mining</em> provides a brief outline of the driving forces behind the significant evolution of uranium mining practices from the time that uranium was first mined for military purposes until today.

Nuclear decommissioning activities can greatly benefit from research and development (R&D) projects. This report examines applicable emergent technologies, current research efforts and innovation needs to build a base of knowledge regarding the status of decommissioning technology and R&D. This base knowledge can be used to obtain consensus on future R&D that is worth funding. It can also assist in deciding how to collaborate and optimise the limited pool of financial resources available among NEA member countries for nuclear decommissioning R&D.

Development of innovative fuels such as homogeneous and heterogeneous fuels, ADS fuels, and oxide, metal, nitride and carbide fuels is an important stage in the implementation process of advanced nuclear systems. Several national and international R&D programmes are investigating minor actinide-bearing fuels due to their ability to help reduce the radiotoxicity of spent fuel and therefore decrease the burden on geological repositories. Minor actinides can be converted into a suitable fuel form for irradiation in reactor systems where they are transmuted into fission products with a significantly shorter half-life.

This report compares recent studies of fuels containing minor actinides for use in advanced nuclear systems. The studies review different fuels for several types of advanced reactors by examining various technical issues associated with fabrication, characterisation, irradiation performance, design and safety criteria, as well as technical maturity.

Both national and international organisations agree that the fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies -- the regulator's prime purpose -- is to ensure that nuclear licensees operate their facilities at all times in a safe manner. Much has been written about ways to improve regulatory processes or to improve the effectiveness of a regulatory body, including in previous OECD/NEA regulatory guidance booklets. But until now, none have focused on the characteristics of an effective nuclear safety regulator.

Effective organisations are those that have good leadership and are able to transform strategic direction into operational programmes. Effectiveness is about how well the organisation is achieving its fundamental purpose -- in the case of a nuclear safety regulator, ensuring that licensees operate their facilities and discharge their obligations in a safe manner.

This regulatory guidance booklet describes the characteristics of an effective nuclear safety regulator in terms of roles and responsibilities, principles and attributes. Each of the characteristics discussed in this report is a necessary feature of an effective nuclear safety regulator but no one characteristic is sufficient on its own. It is the combination of these characteristics that leads to the effectiveness of a nuclear regulatory body. The report provides a unique resource to countries with existing, mature regulators and can be used for benchmarking as well as training and developing staff. It will also be useful for new entrant countries in the process of developing and maintaining an effective nuclear safety regulator.

Uranium is the raw material used to fuel over 400 operational nuclear reactors around the world that produce large amounts of electricity and benefit from life cycle carbon emissions as low as renewable energy sources. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011, driven by uncertainties concerning the future of nuclear power, have led to the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and raised questions about continued uranium supply. This 25th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 45 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It includes data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

Uranium is the raw material used to fuel over 400 operational nuclear reactors around the world that produce large amounts of electricity and benefit from life cycle carbon emissions as low as renewable energy sources. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011, driven by uncertainties concerning the future of nuclear power, have led to the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and raised questions about continued uranium supply. This 25th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 45 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It includes data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.